They called him the sultan, the emir, the sheikh. He wore crocodile-skin loafers and fine silk suits, rode in chauffeur-driven limos and leather-upholstered private jets, ate in three-star restaurants, slept in five-star hotels, maintained servants and even boasted, on special occasions, a harem.
In fact Jean Herrina, who appeared in court in the Riviera resort of Nice yesterday, was born into a lower middle class family in Rome 46 years ago. He grew up in a modest and nondescript suburb of western Paris.
But among the exclusive fraternity of top-class international jewel thieves he is said to have had no equal.
”He was the best we’ve come across,” said a Nice gendarmerie officer.
”Like something out of a novel. He could switch from Arabic to French to Italian to English at will. He always looked the part, from the moustache and the classy accoutrements to the princess on the arm. He was a great actor, no doubt. But his best weapon was the quickness of his hands. Half the time, his victims didn’t even know they’d been done till it was too late.”
By the time he was finally arrested in Paris last year, Herrina was wanted by police in France, Monaco, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Hong Kong.
He was suspected of stealing assorted diamonds, precious stones, rings, necklaces and luxury watches worth something in excess of â,¬6-million, and that, police readily admit, is probably not the half of it.
Herrina is accused of practising what is known in the trade as ”the distraction theft”, posing most of the time as Ben Abdulaziz al Saud, a senior member of the extended Saudi royal family.
He would arrive in a popular haunt of the international jet set with his retinue by chartered private plane, then move into a suite or two at the resort’s swankiest hotel. The town’s leading jewellers were then asked to come to him with their most precious pieces, or he would tour their stores himself in a rented Rolls.
The technique he is said to have used in August 2002 to make off with a particularly fine 15-carat, â,¬250 000 diamond from a bijouterie in Saint Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the Côte d’Azur was typical, the gendarmerie spokesperson said.
”He walked in with one of his so-called wives, who tried on every piece in the shop but plainly couldn’t make up her mind and eventually went back out to the car,” he said.
The gentleman thief, who has never been accused of the slightest violence, lingered for a while and even left a large wad of â,¬500 notes by the till to allay any lingering suspicions, the gendarme alleged. When he ”popped back out to the car to consult with his wife one last time”, the store’s most valuable gem was in his pocket, it is said.
Using similar methods, or substituting costume jewellery for the real thing, the fake emir allegedly made off with two diamond rings worth more than $1-million each in Hong Kong in 2001; a Chopard watch worth â,¬70 000 in Monaco in 2000; necklaces worth 150-million lire in Portofino, Italy that same year; 16 gold and diamond rings worth DM600 000 in Hamburg in 1999; and two precious stones worth $255 000 from a Geneva store in 1998.
He is a suspect in thefts in Lugano, Cortina and Montreux.
Herrina’s most spectacular coup, however, took place in Marbella, Spain, last year, when he is said to have strolled calmly out of one of the world’s most exclusive jewellery chains, Van Cleef & Arpels, allegedly carrying a unique, century-old, 22-carat diamond known as the Golconda. The stone, which measures more than 2cm across the face, is estimated at more than â,¬3-million.
Recognised by police from security camera footage recorded during the Saint Jean-Cap-Ferrat job, the alleged master thief was finally traced to a relatively modest apartment in Paris last September.
In the flat, and in two stashes in Paris and the suburb of Courbevoie, police found a false passport (in the name of Jean-Mario Sturiano), a necklace worth â,¬230 000, a gold Rolex worth â,¬43 000, more luxury watches stolen in Switzerland and Belgium, and a diamond measuring 2cm across its face that experts say is probably the Golconda, recut and repolished.
The case against Herrina was outlined yesterday but the Nice court will not decide his fate for another month.
Herrina is now, however, attempting to sue the Nice magistrates for failing to release him after he was granted bail in January. But judging by the antics of some of the rest of his large family, he stands little chance of escaping the 10-year jail sentence a public prosecutor demanded yesterday.
Herrina’s sister, Marie-Dominique, was jailed in Germany in March 1999 for a series of jewellery thefts in which she posed as an oriental princess.
His 26-year-old nephew Nordine, who called himself Prince Khalid or Al-Soud Saas, was recently sentenced to three years in jail in Italy after appearing on an FBI most-wanted list for jewellery thefts worth $1-million in six US states and the Bahamas. – Guardian Unlimited Â